Interesting information
about the biography, life and times of William
Shakespeare
Facts about William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare facts are few and far between. While we know alot about the great Bard's worklife, but facts about Shakespeare's personal life is less known to us.
There are lot of mysteries around the life of Shakespeare - some of them are facts while few are based on rumours or just fictions! Check out our top 15 facts on William.
Top 15 Facts about William Shakespeare
Shakespeare's exact date of birth is not known to anyone! The closest we can come is his date of Baptism, on April 26th, 1564. By tradition and guesswork it is believed that William was born three days back on 23rd April, 1564, which is generally celebrated as his birthday.
Another strange fact that lies that no one knows exactly his actual date of death! It is generally believed to be on 23rd April.
There is only two authentic portraits of Shakespeare, one is the engraving of William Shakespeare by Martin Droeshout which was first published on the cover page of the 1623 First Folio and the statue of the great dramatist at Stratford's Holy Trinity Church in Stratford.
His portraits were not drawn when he was alive.
William married a woman nearly twice his age named Anne Hathaway and she was three months pregnant at that time!
He got married when he was 18 years old at the Temple Grafton, a village about 8 Km away from Stratford.
John Shakespeare, William's father was a money lender and a tanner. He was accused of taking high interest rates of 20%-25%. His mother Mary was a daughter of a wealthy farmer named Robert Arden.
William Shakespeare and his wife had eight children.
William had not published any of his play! We could read his plays because of fellow actor John Hemminges and Henry Condell.
All members of Shakespeare's family were illiterate!
Shakespeare, the greatest icon of English literature never attended a university.
Most of his plays were published about 7 years after his death in 1616!
Apart from 37 plays written by William, he had also written 154 sonnets or poems.
William is said to be written his first play, Henry VI, Part One around 1589-1890, when he was just 25 years old.
The famous playwright wrote on average 1.5 plays a year since he started in 1589.
Shakespeare not only wrote the play but he also act in his plays! He performed in front of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I.
William was known as a keen businessman to many in his home town of Stratford.
In Shakespeare's plays suicide occurred an unlucky thirteen times.
Shakespeare have no descendant, all his grandsons have died.
The Bard gave all his property to Susana, his eldest child and not to his wife Anne Hathaway. He left for her his "second best bed" only which was their marriage bed.
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